All the way to Anchorage or 1/2 up to Alaska?

[DimSum]

I'm in the preliminary stages of planning an Alaska trip.  Would you take a round trip cruise up to Anchorage (Whittier) or would a round trip cruise to Skagway is ok?  Hoping to get the full experience of an Alaska cruise.  Not interested in doing the sea and land cruise as we prefer to stay on the boat for the return trip.

 

Looking for advice on whether it's worth the extra $$$ to go all the way up to Anchorage/Whittier.

[oaktreerb]

Alaska cruises offer different things to different people.  Do some reading about past cruises on this forum and decide what you want to get out of your Alaska cruise in the time you can allot for your experience.

There are many trip reports at the top of the Alaska forum.

Edited April 1, 2019 by oaktreerb

[donaldsc]

You need to post the itineraries including port times (arrival and departure) on CC before we can give you an intelligent answer.

 

DON

[quack2]

My favorite itinerary is southbound from Seward to Vancouver.

 

Among the reasons:

 

1.  Alaska railroad from Anchorage to Seward

2.  Scenic Kenai Fjords boat tour in Seward prior to boarding cruise ship.

3.  Last full day at Sea on the way to Vancouver.  Beautiful.

4.  Morning arrival in Vancouver, sailing under Lion's Gate Bridge and seeing the sunrise reflecting off downtown buildings.

 

Much of the rest is pretty common from itinerary to itinerary.  I also prefer a stop at Icy Strait.  Best whale watching I've had has been out of Icy Strait.  Sitka would be a bonus too.

 

 

[rkacruiser]

Consider a Northbound and a Southbound cruise on two different cruise lines.  Itineraries may differ, ship experiences will differ, and a transfer from Whittier to Seward will be needed.  But, including, as the schedule permits, a day or two in Anchorage between the two cruises will allow you to experience the attractions of this very pleasant city.

 

Short cruises that start or end in Skagway have no appeal for me.  One gets a very small taste of The Great Land and aren't worth the effort and the expense for me to book them.

[Heidi13]

When I worked on Alaska cruises, we only ever did SE Alaska - Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Sitka.

 

Since cruising as a passenger, we always opt for the R/T from Vancouver to either Whittier or Seward. Also suggest looking for some of the less touristy ports - Haines, Hoonah, Icy Strait, Valdez, etc. The previous suggestion of trying different companies for N'bd & S'bd is a great idea, as many R/T's visit the same ports on both legs.

[DimSum]

Thank you for all the replies.

 

I don't have any itineraries to compare at the moment.  I'm helping an elderly relative with planning and we were wondering if a round trip up to Skagway was better or a round trip up to Whittier was better.  We were not sure if the longer trip and $$$ would be worth the trip to Whittier.

 

I think we would like to see more of the natural beauty and mountains.

[luvteaching]

My personal thought is to first determine where you want to sail out of - Vancouver or Seattle. That will guide you on itineraries. The next decision is 7 days or 14 days. Third - do you want to fly or not? 

If 14 days is your choice and you don't want to fly HAL has a great 2 week itinerary that takes you to Anchorage, Home Kodiak, Sitka as well as Juneau, Ketichikan and Icy Strait Point. It has a couple of different glacier viewings and is on a smaller ship.  It's a true 2 week with no repeated ports. 

 

If your answer if 7 days then both Seattle and Vancouver have some lovely itineraries on different lines and it comes down to which cities you want to visit. 

 

Karen

[nicoleinwi]

We'll be doing R/T Seattle hitting Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan on NCL Bliss.  A lot of people will say you have to do it one ways from Seattle or Vancouver up to main part of AK (whatever port up by Anchorage) or vice versa.

These are the main reasons we choose the R/T Seattle: 

- we liked the ship; go-kart track, laser tag and other features NCL offers

- port calls were what we wanted; Glacier Bay Ketchikan to do Bearing Sea boat trip

- when we cruise to a place we haven't been before we want to explore the embark/disembark ports.  We want to do the cruise in late May. By doing the one-way starting/ending in Anchorage area we didn't feel going up to Denali would be the best weather late May.  So we would have to go back to that part of AK to see Denali at a later point anyways.  

- Cost, by adding the extra cost of the cruise from Anchorage area, extra costs of the flights we could use the extra vacation time  we would have spent in Anchorage area to plan a land based trip there for about the same cost as the additional cruise/airfare cost (plus the additional cost we would spend regardless for the extra days in that part of AK).  Plus we'd then get 2 trips vs just one.  

[zelker]

Another vote for Holland America's 14 night roundtrip out of Seattle with no repeat ports and opportunities to see exceptional beauty and wildlife every day!  In fact, we love this itinerary so much we just booked it for the third time for this summer and I can't wait!  PS - this year it's on the Amsterdam which is a great ship for this itinerary.

[kennicott]

I would do the round trip voyage that takes you up to South Central Alaska, this allows you to view a lot more of Alaska. (About 65% of all cruises just do a round-robin in Alaska's Panhandle, originating at either Seattle or Vancouver.) That way you will get the same cabin, on at least one of Princess offered packages anyway. The other options will involve back to backs but booking early should assure you of the same cabin.

 

Look closely at the Princess "Voyage of the Glaciers" cruises, all beginning and terminating at Vancouver and using the Whittier Port on Prince William Sound, which is much closer to Anchorage than Seward is. The 14 day R.T. is on the Royal Princess and not all the ports are the same. You will get College Fiord, Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay on this one. Hubbard and College Fiord are not in Southeast Alaska but on your way to South Central. Also, both north and south you will cruise the Canadian Inside Passage as well as the Alaska Inside Passage, meaning you will be cruising both directions on the east side of Vancouver Island and not out in the ocean on the west side, where scenic voyaging is pretty mundane, with sometimes rougher seas.

 

The back to backs involve the Pacific Princess and also cruise both directions east of Vancouver Island. Some of these use the same ports north and south but not always, some of these B-2-Bs will give you all the important glaciers.

 

Almost all of Alaska's thousands of glaciers are both shrinking and receding. But there are a few which are not. The beauty of visiting Hubbard Glacier is that it not only is the largest tidewater glacier in North America by far but it is expanding not only in mass but in length and width, it is over 7 miles wide at the face and growing. With the exception of John Hopkins Glacier (one mile wide) in Glacier Bay National Park, all there are shrinking and receding. Hubbard Stretches 76 miles inland and begins on Mount Logan, the largest mountain mass on the face of the earth, it is only a few hundred feet shorter than Denali. It is due to Hubbard's location that it is still growing, since it takes both precipitation and temperature to make a glacier. This area is one of the wettest on earth and the last 100 years have been wetter yet, plus, Logan being almost 20,000 feet high, right from sea level, assures cold temperatures even in today's drastically warming Alaska.